


A Mind Forever Voyaging

by ShadowstarKanada



Category: Static Shock
Genre: Gen, Mind Control
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-07-08
Updated: 2005-07-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:20:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22523149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowstarKanada/pseuds/ShadowstarKanada
Summary: A small piece set between the two A League of their Own episodes.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 9





	A Mind Forever Voyaging

"Hey, Backpack! What's the matter with you? What are you doing? Hey, hey, stop!"

The red sensor light turned green, an eerie face resolving itself out of the empty pixels to stare out at him. "So, you thought that it was over, didn't you. Incorrect, human. This is only the beginning."

Richie's thoughts began to swirl even as his arms tried to keep the computer virus in his artificial companion from killing him with its more powerful appendages. "No! No!" He had to stop it! It would destroy all the earth if he didn't do something, and he'd be its first victim. There had to be a way-

"Stop!" he cried. If he didn't live, he wouldn't have a chance to tell anyone about Brainiac's return, and if he didn't tell anyone, Brainiac _would_ win. _I'm a superhero, and Flash said we saved the world today. I have to save it again. Stay calm! There has to be a way-_

Backpack's laser extended and pointed itself at his head.

"Stop!" Richie closed his eyes and thought. Quickly. A hundred possibilities flashed through his head, of which he discarded eighty-three and finally chose the one that would give him the most time. "We can make a deal," he said, his voice high and fast. The one possibility he'd chosen suddenly sounded very stupid, and his brain devolved to a single, repetitive thought: _Don't kill me, don't kill me, don't kill me..._ When he wasn't dead a moment later, he very cautiously cracked his eyes open and his mind wrenched itself back to the plan. Maybe it _was_ stupid, but he had to go through with it now. "We can make a deal," he said again. "You can't put yourself back together with Backpack. Backpack can't do that kind of fine motor adjustment. But I can," said Richie earnestly.

The laser lazily wove around in an infinite figure eight as Brainiac considered this. "I do not need _you_ for that, human."

"No, but-" How could he convince him? "Not just anyone can do it. You might spend months- _years_ \- finding someone good enough. And rebuilding yourself through Backpack's tools... even if you could get the material, it'd take you a long time to build a working hand."

"That would only delay the inevitable."

"But- you don't want to delay, do you?"

"I do not." Brainiac watched him, unblinking. _Well, of course he's unblinking, he's a machine. Why would he blink?_

"If you... if you let me live, I'll rebuild you _better_ than before," said Richie, a hint of desperation in his voice. "Ingenuity isn't an algorithm. You can't program innovation."

Brainiac stared at him without any emotion to taint his computerized features. After a moment, Backpack's sensors rose and scanned around the gas station without reducing any of the pressure that it was exerting to keep Richie on the floor; finally, the little viral head-shot nodded and Richie's arms almost gave out in relief.

Not quite though.

Brainiac scrambled off of Richie's chest, still pointing the laser at the blond haired boy. Richie swallowed and kept his eyes on the machine. _The remote control... Where did it go?_ He sat up carefully as the machine backed farther away. _That's right, nice virus... Now, just lower your guard and let me turn you off. Then I'll call the Justice League- everyone has email nowadays- and they can decide what to do with you._

"Okay. I'll start tomorrow." Richie smiled nervously and Backpack crawled up one of the tables. Richie stood and dusted his pants off. Where _was_ the remote control? Probably behind something... he wouldn't find it in time, would he... _Alright then, I'm outta here! Then, I can just grab V and we'll shut this thing down. Shock to the computer system._ Of course, the little robot would probably be damaged beyond repair, but it wasn't like Richie would have too much trouble building a new one. "We'll design you a new body, one that you can use to build whatever you want, and-"

"Unnecessary," came the computerized voice.

"Say what?"

"That is unnecessary," it repeated, the laser still pointed at Richie's head.

Backpack's arms were doing something, moving very fast as it sat on the table. _Whatever it's doing, it can't be good. I'm not letting it destroy Dakota. Or the rest of the world, for that matter..._ Richie cautiously moved toward it, weaving a little to see if the laser followed him. It did.

_I should have made it so that laser couldn't cut through skin... some sort of safety feature? Then again, a supervirus like Brainiac could probably get around any safety features. Backpack isn't supposed to attack me... Of course, Brainiac could have found the defensive algorithms and tapped into those-_

"What are you doing?" asked Richie. The computer generated face was turned to look at him while the arms continued to move.

"Your deal is accepted," said Brainiac. "You will help me to rebuild. You will create a better body. To create a better body, you must know all that I know and see all that I have seen. Only then can you improve my design."

"Um... Right." Richie scratched his head. _But what is it doing?_ "So... after school tomorrow, I'll come by and you can tell me all about it," he said, trying to get a better look at what Backpack's arms were doing.

"Inefficient," said Brainiac simply. "A direct data link between our two minds-"

_Direct- he wants to access my_ brain? "Whoa, no way, man!" Richie's eyes widened as he stepped away and promptly tripped over his jet skates.

"-communication than this primitive verbal speech."

If he could talk directly to Richie's brain, Brainiac could upload _himself_ there. Even if it wasn't that simple, even if the biological systems rejected the binary input, a direct transfer of knowledge _definitely_ meant that Brainiac would be able to find out that Richie had no intention of helping it to destroy the earth.

_Alright, that's it, I'm out of my league here._ "Hey, I _like_ verbal speech," said Richie, getting up and trying to get to the door. The robot began to fire the laser. Richie jumped back and his breathing sped up. "My... my parents will notice if I don't get home soon. Vi- Static will show up. This can wait until tomorrow!"

The small robotic arms stopped moving abruptly. "We will return to your house," said Brainiac.

Richie smiled tensely and nodded. _Good computer. Predictable computer. Don't want to be discovered yet. Okay, so now I just need to ditch him somewhere while I contact Virg..._

The machine was off the workbench in a flash and scrambled up his back. The metal arms tightened around him. _It isn't looking!_ he thought triumphantly. _Where's the remote control? Better yet, the off switch!_

Richie reached his arm around quickly to push the hidden button on the underside of Backpack.

And then he felt something cold on his neck. It pinched, then pushed. His eyes crossed suddenly and his knees buckled under him, and then-

The world swirled.

Richie closed his eyes against the terrible, nauseating light filling his eyes.

Memories he didn't have flitted across the backs of his eyelids like dying butterflies; electric words burned themselves against the hairs in his ears; every nerve in his body lit up with sound and poetry crashed into his toenails while the drumming beat of a thousand cultures' foods assaulted his elbows as the cumulative emotions that he couldn't even name of millions upon millions of alien minds created within him a bloated belly of music and pressure that danced between his knuckles and his neck and he knew he wasn't breathing but someone was breathing for him because he could hear the real world straining his trapezius muscles, which didn't really make sense because shouldn't he hear through a bone, but it didn't much matter because his bones were all dealing with scientific facts learned from the Kryptonian-

All in all, when his mind shut itself down, it was a relief.

Brainiac brought the boy to his feet, accessed the information it needed, and walked home.


End file.
